{"title":"Books by Selina Hastings","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781784704377","title":"Sybille Bedford","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first full and intimate biography of writer and \u003ci\u003ebon viveur\u003c\/i\u003e Sybille Bedford\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A fantastic read' India Knight, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A wonderful biography' Sara Wheeler, \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn in Germany to aristocratic parents, Sybille Bedford's (1911-2006) life contained all the grand feeling and seismic event of the twentieth century: war and peace, love and trauma, friendship and death, as well as the need to write and rescue something from this wreckage. Openly gay, Bedford once said 'I wish I'd written more books and spent less time being in love. It's very difficult doing both at the same time.' In her forties she published her breakthrough novel, \u003ci\u003eA Legacy\u003c\/i\u003e, continuing to publish until her early nineties, writing some of the outstanding and most original novels, memoirs and travel books of the century.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBedford's father died when she was just fourteen and her mother, a great socialite and \u003ci\u003elitterateur\u003c\/i\u003e, fell victim to a debilitating morphine addiction. Striking out on her own, Bedford fell under the spell of Aldous Huxley, who was to become her friend and mentor. Staying with Aldous and his wife Maria in their sunlit villa in the south of France between the wars were some of the happiest and most enlivening years of Bedford's life - even as she failed and failed again at finding her own voice on the page. And yet it was these years that would provide the material for \u003ci\u003eJigsaw: An Unsentimental Education\u003c\/i\u003e, widely considered to be her masterwork and which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003ebon viveur\u003c\/i\u003e, lover of French wine and cuisine, and admired by her peers ('One of the most dazzling practitioners of English prose' Bruce Chatwin once commented) she roamed from country to country - Germany, France, England, Italy and the United States - in search of fresh experience, with ear and eye attuned to her surroundings, typewriter at the ready. Full of intense friendships (Martha Gellhorn and Elizabeth Jane Howard among them), a fierce commitment to the craft of writing, as well as an insatiable appetite for love and sex, Sybille Bedford blazed her own path in her life and her art.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e*A \u003ci\u003eDAILY TELEGRAPH\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e AND \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020*\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128560976050,"sku":"9781784704377","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781784704377.jpg?v=1786026000"},{"product_id":"9780719565557","title":"The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor nearly sixty years Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was one of the most famous writers in the world. An enormously successful playwright and the author of over a hundred short stories and twenty-one novels - several of which are now established classics - Maugham expertly concealed a private life. Predominantly homosexual, and deeply in love with the charming but dissolute Gerald Haxton, he made a disastrous marriage to Syrie Wellcome which he would escape by travelling and writing extensively in the Far East. A talented linguist, during both world wars Maugham worked for British Intelligence. In between he moved in literary and theatrical circles in London, New York and Hollywood and entertained lavishly at his luxurious villa in the south of France. Outwardly his life was richly rewarding, but privately he suffered anguish from an unrequited love affair and a shocking final betrayal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcclaimed biographer Selina Hastings has had access to Maugham's extensive private correspondence as well as to important family testimony, which sheds a fascinating new light on this complex and extraordinary man.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295142326645,"sku":"9780719565557","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780719565557_1f1b641f-114f-4fa9-bd81-a9c6a2f68e48.jpg?v=1786014857"},{"product_id":"rosamond-lehmann","title":"Rosamond Lehmann","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe life of Rosamond Lehmann was as romantic and harrowing as that of any of her fictional heroines. Her first novel, the shocking \u003ci\u003eDusty Answer\u003c\/i\u003e, became wildly successful launching her career as a novelist and, just as her novels depicted the tempestuous lives of her heroines, Rosamond's personal life would be full of heartbreaking affairs and lost loves. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEscaping from a disastrous early marriage Rosamond moved right into the heart of Bloomsbury society with Wogan Philipps. Later on she would embark on the most important love affair of her life, with the poet Cecil Day Lewis; nine years later he abandoned her for a young actress - a betrayal from which she would never recover.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSelina Hastings masterfully creates a portrait of a woman whose dramatic life, work and relationships criss-crossed the cultural, literary and political landscape of England in the middle of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466612580725,"sku":"9780099730118","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099730118.jpg?v=1785654670"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-selina-hastings.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}